I’ve been using photoshop for several years now, and while I’m by no means a wizard, I can do the basic stuff and can occasionally bust out some cool shit. However, when it comes to dramatically changing a person, it still baffles me how powerful the tool is. While watching this in high speed makes it look easy, I understand that there is some true wizardry at work here. But that’s like talking about the engineering of a Ferrari, while ignoring how it drives. While this video is an impressive feat for those that know Photoshop, it’s also completely frightening to think about what we’re seeing and accepting as reality.

So, Wieden+Kennedy is a cool agency. And their school â€œ12â€ is all about being cool and hip and mind-breaking. Here is one of the only things I’ve seen done by them.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s something very romantic about the notion of failing harder. And supposedly, Dan Wieden himself carries a mantra that all of his creatives are worthless to him until they each fail majorly TWO times. He wants them to not be afraid of fear, but to pursue a line so thin, that there must be the occasional slip into failure. Very romantic indeed.

But let us look at this beautiful and excellently done wall. Supposedly containing 100419 drawing pins, and taking over 351 hours to build. DAMN! Considering they had 12 people working on this, that’s 29.25 hours per person, almost a full week of work by 12 individuals. Now, those 12 are paying to go to this school, and I have to say, I’d be pretty damn pissed if I had to pay money to go and push pins into a wall for an entire week, taking off some time to shit and eat and read Lifehacker. And while it’s really cool to look at, is it really going to lead anyone to take more risks? I’d say looking at that, it causes me to say, â€œNevermind, crazy ideas are often the masturbation of their owners, which leave everyone feeling empty and used up after the selfish-ness passes. What’s the point?â€

Does anyone who walks by this really get motivated to take a greater risk? To have courage in the face of losing their job? And in the world of Top-Tier advertising, have the balls to risk a major corporations millions of dollars pursuing something truly crazy? I’m not saying that isn’t a great goal, but does a wall filled with pushpins motivate me into action?

Who knows? I’m sitting here thinking about it, which may cause me into more action than I realize. Just the fact that it was so profound of a concept that I spent 20 minutes beating it with a stick, might mean it is absolutely successful. I don’t know. But I still no I’d hate to spend money to be told to make this.